


Death is a woman and she runs a bar in the afterlife

by Chocolate_Cigars_and_root_beer



Series: I'd Like to Believe That I'd Do it Again [3]
Category: Falsettos - Lapine/Finn, Falsettos - Lapine/Finn (Broadway Cast) RPF
Genre: Afterlife, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Death, Death, HIV/AIDS, M/M, Sad, Sad with a Happy Ending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-28
Updated: 2018-09-06
Packaged: 2019-07-03 15:54:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15822138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chocolate_Cigars_and_root_beer/pseuds/Chocolate_Cigars_and_root_beer
Summary: After finally letting go for good Whizzer finds himself in a bar run by a blonde woman who identifies herself as death, they talk over a glass of white wine.





	1. Conversation and Wine with Death

**Author's Note:**

> I really like this idea? It's kinda a rewrite of an awful fic I wrote once upon a time it's now deleted.

Whizzer should have stayed longer and he should have been happier that he knew, but here he was back in his bed his eyes shut. He knew that Mendel, Charlotte, and Marvin had stayed in the room with him the other three members of the family were sat in the waiting room waiting for the inevitable. God, it was an inevitability now wasn’t it? He wasn’t scared of death no that was easy, it was the letting go that scared him so much. He had so many years left with Marvin, so many more jokes with Jason, he needed more time to spend with the lesbians, he had so many more conversations to have with Trina and Mendel. Just one more year was enough, he’d kill to have those 365 days of life. But this wasn’t a game that he could win, this wasn’t some trading system where if he begged and wished hard enough that he would get more time; no this was life and the universe would not be so kind on him.  
A squeeze of the hand and a whisper of “You can hold on, I promise.” signified the leaving of Mendel.

That wasn’t the goodbye Whizzer wanted none of this. He desired something better; to go out in a dazzling array of flames not to be dying sickly in a hospital bed that was a little too short for his stature. Whizzer just wanted for Trina to burst in once again with champagne and have this all be okay, but it couldn’t be.

Charlotte was talking Whizzer through something but he couldn’t listen her voice was too sweet on his ears her voice seemed like the promise of something better, better than these empty walls and sterile air and all too soon she planted a kiss on his cheek and whispered “I love you Whiz always have always will.” tears came when they shouldn’t have “I’m glad that I know you.” she placed her forehead on his holding in her tears until she had left the room for good.

Trina slipped in replacing Charlotte because she had deemed it necessary for Marvin to not be alone in this situation. Whizzer wasn’t aware that when she walked in she had wrapped her arms around Marvin’s shoulder a brief moment of peace between the two parties. Waiting was never Whizzer’s forte sitting silently focusing on gasping in every breath as he would come to learn was also not his forte.

Hours seemed to pass between the three until Trina brushed what hair he had left back and whispered “Jason wants to say that he loves you, we’ll be here tomorrow.” that was something to look forward to if he could just hold on for a little longer he could see Jason and this whole routine would just resume again.

Marvin had moved to be closer to Whizzer’s bed he wanted to lay next to him but Whizzer looked so fragile that he was afraid to even touch him. “I’m so happy to be next to you.” Whizzer smiled “I just want to be here in this moment forever, to be with you just forever.”

“Me too,” Whizzer mumbled.

“Ya know I’d do this over so many times just to be with you.” Marvin laid his head on Whizzer’s chest listening to the steady beat of his heart. He pulled away grasping Whizzer’s hand “Everything’s going to be okay, you have a family that loves you, you have your art, you have everything a person could want.” Whizzer squeezed his hand letting his body relax “I just need you to know that.” over what seemed like hours his breathing became slower and slower. Marvin held tighter to his hand he went to move his head-

And then the world spun around him and he opened his eyes to see a bar, he moved to run his hand through hair and found it full like it had been what now seemed like years ago, it was stupid that he was happy about that. So this was the afterlife not exactly what Whizzer had envisioned he had imagined some greenery, not a bar as nice as it was. Someone he hadn’t noticed was the woman who stood at the large shelves of alcohol she turned around with a smile. She stood rather tall with slick blonde hair and dark brown eyes, her skin was fair, freckled, and blushed. She reminded Whizzer almost too much of Cordelia.

“So I’m dead.” this could have been a dream a possibility that Whizzer wished for more than anything, after all, Jason was going to visit tomorrow.

The woman rested her thin arms against the dark countertop “Yup.” her voice was deep and rich like a dark chocolate “Care for a drink?”

“Oh yeah just a white wine.” she pulled a glass from behind her filling it “So what has it been a day?”

“Two months,” she announced how had so much time passed he had just gotten here?

“So I’m assuming your death or something like that.”

She pulled back her light pink lips into a smile “Yeah I guess you could call me that, not what you were expecting right?”

“Not at all I thought you’d be like intimidating.” he took a sip of his drink “You look like Cordelia.”

“Oh Cordelia!” she clapped her hands bobbing up and down “She’s lovely!”

“You know her?”

“I know everyone darling!” Death was far too friendly for what Whizzer had expected.

“Do you know how they’re doing.”

She slapped a large book on the table “I’m surprised it took you this long.” she began to flip through Whizzer recognized so many of the photo because he had taken them strewn through were moments Whizzer could remember so vividly and then the pages went blank. Death scowled “Hold on give me a second.” she propped the book up to face her and with the snap of her fingers the book was back down again she pointed at a picture of Cordelia “Oh Delia where would she ever be?”

Whizzer could have sworn he saw her blink “How is she?”

“She’s been stumbling through this,” Cordelia pulled out a cigarette.

“She smokes?” he had known her for seventeen years and somehow hadn’t noticed that she smoked.

“Yeah she started when you went to the hospital.” he couldn’t help but feel guilty “But she’s only stumbling, for now, she’ll- survive.” Death seemed to stop short of saying something and she slowly closed the book “The rest is for later my friend. Now I have to go through some boring stuff about whatever,” she rolled her eyes “It’s stupid that they make me go through this.”

“New here?”

“Nope just don’t like the rules.” she put the book back under the counter “So what path will you take Whiz?”

“What paths can I take?”

“Oh yeah paths first then pitch sorry it’s been a long day.” she moved her hands sporadically.

“No, it’s cool.” Whizzer took another sip of his wine.

“So you can stay here with yours truly until Marvin or whoever you want to wait for gets here,” she drummed the woods with two fingers “or I can lead you to your eternal rest!”

“Will I get to see Marvin again? Or Jason?”

Death leaned against the back counter “I can’t tell you that because yet again people here are awful at making rules.”

“Well, then I’ll stay here, either way, you seem like a good time.”

“That’s the spirit hun!” Death practically cheered.

“So you’re not like the main death?”

She perked up “Huh?”

“You mentioned rules made by other people.”

“Oh well I don’t make the rules of death I just follow them.” she gestured up “I just get a rule book to follow every year or so.”

“What's up with that book thing?”

“Oy the questions!” she threw her head back dramatically “It’s like a scrapbook but moving and more fun.”

Whizzer swirled his drink around watching it as it faded down back into the bottom of a cup “So is time like normal here?”

“Nope, it’s faster, and before you ask I’m not sure how much faster.”

“Well just tell me when a year has passed.”

“Finally a question that I can ask you!” she snapped “Why would you need to know if a year has passed?”

“Well, I’d just like to know how long they’ve gone without me.”

“That’s fair.” Death seemed to chatter on about whatever came to mind until she shifted her attention to Whizzer again “What did you think this was going to be like?”

“What?” Whizzer had tuned her out rather easily.

“The afterlife what did you expect?”

“I don’t know not this?” the blonde woman gestured for him to continue “I always enjoyed the idea of a railroad of sorts? Just traveling forever.”

“And what about me?” she placed her chin on her folded hands batting her eyelids jokingly.

“Well, I was expecting a tall man in a dark suit sunglasses maybe.”

Death looked down at her floral dress “Maybe I should try a suit next time, flower child doesn’t instill fear.”

“A suit would be shar-”

“One-year ding dong!” she mimicked a clock informing Whizzer of his anniversary.

He choked on air “That fast?”

“No, I’m pulling your leg, of course, it’s been a year!”

“Can I see the book?” Whizzer spoke quietly.

Death grunted as she dragged the ever increasing book onto the smooth surface of the counter “God this gets bigger every time.” she flipped through pages.

“Please don’t bore me with the sad stuff I can just assume most of it.”

Death moved back from the book “This is,” she trailed off for a few seconds “Okay so-”

“I take it back.” to this death raised one slim eyebrow “If something made you recoil like that I need to know it.”

"Well; Marvin’s not over you like at all,”

“I could assume that.”

“Neither is Cordelia. Charlotte’s afraid for Cordelia,”

“I’m assuming Charlotte is better?”

“That’s what she says. Jason picked up photography, Mendel is helping at the hospital. Trina is,” Whizzer wondered why Death was hesitating.

“Look did Trina die somehow because if she did I want to see her-”

“She came close by a slide of her own hands.”

“Oh.” and once again Whizzer was wordless “I wish I hadn’t taken it back.”

Death, however, seemed uninterested she was staring at a photo, or whatever the things in her scrapbook was, it was of Jason riding a bike on some trail Whizzer didn’t recognize “They’re in Connecticut, visiting family.” she seemed to answer Whizzer’s question without him even needing to pose it.

“He looks happy.” Jason was smiling widely as he stood up on the pedals of his bike showing off the many scraps he had acquired from attempting to ride without handlebars.

“He is.” she flipped the book to show Marvin and Cordelia baking together Cordelia was folding batter as Marvin let his batter fall off of his rubber spatula “That looks like fun.”

“Who do you think is doing it right?”

“Surprisingly Marvin is.” Whizzer laughed “Oh this one is just lovely!” she flipped the book over to show Trina pressed to Mendel’s chest as they danced together slowly.

“Ya know one of the last things Trina said to me was ‘I wish you happiness and nothing but.’”

“You think she'd be fun to have in here?”

“Other than on holidays I have seen her drink once and it was as her husband was announcing that he was leaving.” Death frowned “She’s lovely though you might want to just get like a nice tea for her.”

Death lowered herself down picking up a lemon zinger tea from seemingly nowhere “Like this?”

“I guess.” Whizzer tilted his head “You have time though.”

“I hope so.” a new photo of Charlotte and Cordelia appeared they were hugging on a snowy street “Cordelia proposed how sweet!”

“God I miss those nerds.” Whizzer had always assumed he would be the best man at Cordelia’s wedding but that possibility was gone now, wasn’t it? “Imagine their wedding dresses.”

“Oh I don’t have to!” she skipped ahead many pages in the book “I don’t like knowing any of the endings just in case something is bad.” she pushed her bangs out of her face “Oh here they are!” together stood Cordelia and Charlotte smiling as brightly as they did when they first met, Cordelia’s hair had small streaks of grey she was wearing a long off-white sundress. Charlotte’s hair was pulled into a low bun, she looked as if she had just gotten off of a shift at the hospital. They were locking hands in a small courtroom.

“City hall marriage huh.”

“Yup did it as soon as they could, it’s kinda sweet.” she shut the book reminding Whizzer that he really didn’t have a say in what he saw here.

“God I’d give anything to be there.”

“So would they,” Whizzer’s breath hitched “That was not necessary but they do miss you dearly.” and once again death rambled on and on about things that Whizzer couldn’t or rather didn’t want to care about or understand. He began to gaze around the room noticing the grand piano he had waved off before.

He pointed at it “Can you play?”

She stopped “Yes but I’m a bit rusty it’s been years since my musical death thing.” she moved away from the bar to sit at the piano and began to play the melodies seemed to twist into each other so effortlessly, Whizzer recognized nearly none of them they all seemed to be classical which was the music he happened to listen to the least. But Death seemed too invested in her music that he couldn’t help but settle in a booth until she looked up and glanced at him.

“Are you ready?” Whizzer tilted his head as the far door in the bar creaked open.


	2. Reunited

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marvin finally finds his way back to Whizzer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hhhhhhhhhhh this bitch is supposed to be writing Mendel's chapter but I'm not because I'm a mess

Whizzer turned his head as the door slowly creaked open and in walked Marvin, and for a second Whizzer almost didn't want it to be true. Marvin had so many more years rather than what short time seemed to pass between last seeing him.

Marvin locked eyes with him running to wrap his arms around his lover's neck “God I missed you!” his voice was shaky boarding on weepy.

“I did too.” they kissed something that Whizzer had expected he would miss most but just being able to talk to Marvin rather than watching him in photos was something Whizzer simply couldn't put above anything else.

Death cleared her throat “So,”

Marvin squinted at the woman “Oh yeah,” Whizzer trailed off “I have no idea how to phrase this-”

“Death in the flesh.” the blonde swung her legs off the piano bench to stand.

“Funny you look more like a Rhoda.”

“I'll keep that in mind next time.”

“So do you two want to stay here a little longer?”

Whizzer looked to Marvin “A drink wouldn't hurt?”

They migrated to the bar where Death hoisted herself onto the counter “I always thought Death was a man.” Marvin commented almost making it sound as if she wasn't there.

“Interesting.” she tucked hair behind her ears “I'm technically nothing but,” she emphasized the ‘but’ “Female forms are a lot of fun I mean look at this dress.” she gestured to her hanging floral dress it could have almost been classified as a gown.

“Ya got me there.”

“So,” Whizzer wasn’t sure what to ask he had had so much time to think about it, but now he was wordless “Did I miss anything?”

Marvin smiled “Yeah, like a lot.”

“You gotta give him more than that!” Death leaned on her hand.

“Well, the lesbians were looking into kids?” Marvin shook his head “Charlotte talked about it in depth but I never really understood what she meant. Something about a surrogate or something like that. Cordelia didn’t really understand it either.”

“That doesn’t sound legal?” Whizzer commented.

“It actually is.” Marvin placed his hand around the rim of his glass “Believe it or not we can have kids just not anything else.”

“Funny,” Whizzer leaned against Marvin’s shoulder that simple touch made him smile god he had missed this so most “Ya know they’re gonna get married.”

“Really?” Death nodded “Good on them.” Marvin said as if he was simply watching their life from the outside, and in a way he was.

“Don’t you have something to ask him?” Whizzer gestured to Death.

“Oh yeah!” she snapped her fingers “I outta keep you around you’d make this go by a lot faster.” she laughed at her own joke “Well you can stay here in my beautiful bar,” she spread her arms imitating wings “Until somebody you want to see walks through that door but I must warn you I might be a while or I can lead you to your final rest!” she plastered a smile on her face.

The two lovers looked at each other “Well we could wait but wouldn’t you like to see-” Whizzer stopped his sentence short unable to find the proper phrasing “More than this?”

“That’s true,” Marvin looked to death “Will I get to see Jason again.”

“Rules prohibit me from saying yes or no.” she scrunched her face and gave a thumbs up “I swear if I get in trouble for that I will find you guys.” she squinted.

“We're already dead what are you going to do?” Whizzer joked.

Death tucked some hair behind her ear “I don't know? I'll do something, I have all of time to think about it.” she made eye contact with Marvin “So?”

“I think-” Whizzer nodded, “I think we do.” and as suddenly as he seemed to get there Whizzer was in a new place; surrounded with greenery so this was death? A small cottage stood in a clearing, the windows open letting in the cool air, a firepit sat a stone’s throw away from the door of the cottage. Whizzer had to admit it was nice. After an afternoon of sitting lakeside Whizzer lit the fire pit and the two sat on a log watching the flames soar into the sky and die off magnificently.

“What's going on with the family? You only got to the lesbians before Death came in.”

“Mendel's helping out at the hospital, he's surprisingly good at it.”

“As bad of a therapist as he is nice to talk to.”

“He's trying.”

“What about Jason?” god he must be twenty by now?

“He's a moody teen.” that came as almost too much of a shock to Whizzer.

“How old was he?”

“Fifteen.” fifteen wasn't old enough to lose a father hell it wasn't old enough to lose anyone “He grew like a foot in that time.”

“Tall and lanky the universe seems to be in order.” Whizzer needed something else thinking about Jason for too long would only make him feel worse. “What about Trin?”

“Oh well Trina is hanging in there, she's been attempting to teach Cordelia how to cook Jewish food.”

“Oh god, she's going to set the entire house on fire. Trina is honestly a saint for trying.”

"Ya know what's funny? I planned on spending my life with her." The words seemed so bittersweet on Marvin's lips; he had planned on many things a simple and long life with a lovely wife to go along. But Whizzer Brown wasn't known for following plans.

"Are ya glad you didn't?" Whizzer stared into the fire as it sprinted up into the air flickering off as if it had never existed.

"Yeah. Her and Mendel are happy."

"What about yourself." Whizzer didn't know Marvin to be selfless, he wasn't selfish exactly but leaving himself out of the equation seemed oddly out of character.

"I mean I got you out of it." Marvin leaned against the firm leather of Whizzer's coat smiling. Why was he so happy? They were dead because of Whizzer in a way, he could be there watching Jason blossom into adulthood but he was content to stay here watching the fire.

“Ya know this entire time I didn't miss those dopes.” Marvin didn't speak “Like I wished I could see them but I never really missed them.”

“Weird.”

“But now I just want to be back in that hospital room with them.”

“Me too.” Whizzer didn’t want to cry not here at least he had done so much of that when he was alive why bring that into his new life “I think we just have to wait.”

“We should have asked more questions.”

“Yeah, plus the wine was nice,” he smirked.

“There’s gotta be wine around here.” Marvin turned his head looking into the cottage “If not then we definitely went to the wrong place.” Whizzer chuckled, Marvin had forgotten his laugh it was deep and warm like brown sugar it warmed his ears and just for a second he forgot that that laugh had ever left his life.

The cottage was well furnished on the smaller end but they didn’t need the space surely enough there was a bottle of white wine, Whizzer retrieved two glasses from the cabinets and Marvin poured a glass. Whizzer rested on a chair one leg sitting on the chair Marvin looked at him smiling.

“What are you looking at?” Marvin started laughing causing Whizzer to laugh along “I mean it, you nerd!”

Marvin pulled himself together “It’s just this reminds me of when we were sneaking around.” he sat in the chair next to Whizzer “In your little studio,”

“We never had wine this nice there.” this was an unintentional lie Marvin had bought both Trina and Whizzer a nice red wine for Valentine’s day.

“God, that was what? Seven years ago?” Whizzer was almost shocked.

“Was it really?” he felt as if he needed to count on his fingers.

Marvin looked up for a few seconds “Yup just about.”

“Shit we’ve been together for,” he trailed off would he count all seven years no right? “Three years?”

“I think that’s right.” Marvin nodded “God it’s felt like so much longer. Ya know I’ve always wondered something.”

“What?”

“What did you do in those two years the ones that we weren’t talking.”

“Oh I didn’t do too much,” some of what Marvin had heard from Cordelia seemed to tell otherwise “I just did my photography thing, I traveled a bit but it wasn’t that much.”

“Trina told me you called Jason.”

“Yeah, I kinda liked having that routine and he seemed to enjoy having someone to talk to.” in those two years he had found that Jason would always be part of his life no matter what and he didn’t mind it one bit “But what did you do?” god this was really like catching up with an old friend wasn’t it?

“I just existed, I tried to mend my relationships with everyone. Cordelia and Charlotte moved in after that and they helped mostly because Charlotte wouldn’t tolerate my shit.”

“She’d be a wonderful therapist, in specific places at least.”

They drank the wine together laughing about things that weren’t really funny but at least they were together then Marvin lifted his glass “To waiting!”

Whizzer touched his glass to Marvin’s “To waiting!” Marvin yawned and leaned back in the birch chair “Well I think that’s a prompt to go to sleep.”

“No!” Marvin protested “I don’t want this night to end.”

“We’ll always have tomorrow night dork.” Whizzer placed his head against to side of Marvin’s head.

“Oh yeah,” Marvin smiled at least in this waiting they had each other. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also if anyone wants to send some good vibes my way I'm trying to move in with my Coici because my current home situation is less than ideal it would be really appreciated

**Author's Note:**

> There will be more you best believe! Who's at the door? You'll find out after Marvin's next How The Body Falls A Part chapter!


End file.
